Saif Ali Khan Was ‘Heartbroken’ When Agent Vinod Didn’t Work, Says ‘I Could’ve Made My Character More Desi’

Agent Vinod which turned 12 on Saturday, March 23 was a very special film for Saif Ali Khan. He turned producer with this honourable misfire. Agent Vinod was a full-on take on the James Bond-Tom Cruise genre of sensuous spying with Saif dressed at his best, wooing and bedding some of the most glamorous women in the industry. Saif produced the film to ensure his role turned out just so.

Ever since Rajshri made the low-budget Agent Vinod in 1977 featuring the then-rising Mahendra Sandhu, as the spy who loved girls’ gadgets and stunts, Saif was fascinated by the thought of doing a take on the title. Though our Agent Vinod had nothing to do with the old Rajshri film of that name, it explored the same espionage territory, albeit in an entirely new idiom. Director Sriram Raghavan and Saif had been brainstorming over this project for a long time. Saif lost weight to look lean mean and macho to play Agent Vinod.

Sriram Raghavan reveals Saif Ali Khan wanted Vijay Sethupathi’s part in Merry Christmas: ‘He was a little upset’

Sriram Raghavan revealed that he wanted a fresh pair for Merry Christmas, and had to say no to Saif Ali Khan for Vijay Sethupathi’s role opposite Katrina Kaif.

The unusual pairing of Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi in Merry Christmas has been the talk of the town. In a new interview with Pinkvilla, director Sriram Raghavan revealed that there was another actor who had shown interest in the part before Vijay came on board. That actor was Saif Ali Khan, with whom Sriram has worked earlier in Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and Agent Vinod (2012).

Sriram said, “I wanted a very unique kind of a pairing because that’s the story’s requirement. One should not get any baggage from either of them. So I had met another actor who had liked the role also, but then I told him sorry.”

Celebrating 10 years of Saif Ali Khan’s Agent Vinod

Celebrating 10 years of Saif Ali Khan’s Agent Vinod

Saif Ali Khan’s 10 Best Performances, Ranked

Khan is not perfect, he never has been, and maybe his imperfection has been his most enduring strength

This is Saif Ali Khan’s 28th year in the Hindi film industry. Like most others from his generation, he’s spent more of his life on the screen than off it. Unlike the other Khans, though, Saif’s has been a career that has consistently straddled the fragile bridge between actor and star. In the 1990s, it was out of limitation. Post the noughties, it’s been out of choice. Indian audiences have been unfamiliar with this terrain – for the most part, it translated to “neither here nor there” and “no man’s land”. But over the last decade, as incoming artists have begun to straddle the two extremes, and as moviegoers have begun to look past the big screen, Khan’s status has been reinterpreted as “all-rounder”. The specialists are now the ones struggling. Saif meanwhile headlines a film, a web series, does cameos, morphs into a supporting actor at will, thrives as an antagonist as well as a canny producer. 

While the best of today’s artists are inherent actors flirting with the allowances of stardom, Khan’s arc – of a star aspiring to flirt with the obsessions of performance art – is a rarity. The risks he takes are calculated, often designed to be a zero-sum game. For instance, his last three roles alone have evoked the essence of three separate schools of Indian acting: Laal Kaptaan was an ‘arthouse’ performance, Tanhaji a single-screen one and Jawaani Jaaneman a multiplex turn  The glass-half-empty perception of him has finally dissolved into a half-full one, partly due to the new-age casting revolution and partly due to his disarming desire to improve, adapt, evolve and experiment. 

Omkara to Sacred Games to Tanhaji: Saif Ali Khan is always on the edge of tomorrow

This is what his directors Navdeep Singh, Imtiaz Ali and Vikramaditya Motwane had to say about the Chhote Nawab and his curious choice of roles.

The least feted of the Bollywood Khans is the most interesting of them all. One day he is ‘Chhote Nawab’ and next he is Uday Bhan Rathod, Aurangzeb’s most trusted and brutal general, in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior.

Saif Ali Khan, now 49, keeps reinventing himself, while the other Khans increasingly stagnate, their stardom engulfing them and their craft.

And yet, Saif was the one who has had to least prove his credentials.

The last Nawab Begum of Bhopal was Saif Ali Khan’s grandmother, his grandfather and father, erstwhile Nawabs of Pataudi, both captained Team India in cricket. His mother, Sharmila Tagore, a celebrated actress, traces her lineage to Rabindranath Tagore through both her parents. He attended the last Viceroy of India Lord Louis Mountbatten’s old school, Lockers Park in Hertfordshire, and then went to the 600-year-old Winchester College in Hampshire where, among other things, he developed a taste for James Bond, Clint Eastwood and Alain Delon. Not exactly the breeding ground for someone whose most iconic role till now has been one of a desi Iago, aka Ishwar ‘Langda’ Tyagi, in Vishal Bhardwaj’s earthy recreation of Othello, Omkara (2006). And Saif’s opening dialogue was: “Bewakoof aur chutiya main dhage bhar ka pharak hota hai.”

Saif Ali Khan in talks with director Sriram Raghavan for a thriller?

Saif Ali Khan is in a pretty happy space on the professional front right now. The actor, who’s gearing up for his hit web series Sacred Games 2, has a couple of interesting projects up his sleeve. While Saif Ali Khan has already signed Jawaani Jaaneman, looks like he may also take up Sriram Raghavan’s next thriller. Though, Saif hasn’t signed the dotted line yet, the final modalities are currently being worked out. So, if all goes well, Saif may be seen playing the lead in Sriram Raghavan’s next film which is also touted to be a thriller.

Saif and Sriram go back a long way. The actor-director duo has worked together in films like Ek Hasina Thi and Agent Vinod. While Sriram is known for his edge of the seat thrillers, Saif Ali Khan seems to be enjoying his new-found space as an actor. If the project does find a green signal from the actor, it’ll be interesting to see what the duo will have in store for us.

Apart from Jawaani Jaaneman, Saif Ali Khan has also announced Bhoot Police. While Go Goa Gone 2 has apparently gone in limbo, reports also suggest that he may join Amitabh Bachchan in Aankhen 2 along with Jacqueline Fernandez.
Sriram Raghavan is in talks with Saif Ali Khan for his next thriller. It is suggested that Saif and Sriram Raghavan are currently in talks for a thriller film. Saif has reportedly liked the script and has met with the director a couple of times for the same.